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15 Responses to What’s Different Under Zola

A Gooner fan friend of mine was bemoaning the fact that we didn’t attack last week, but GZ’s comment are a compliment to Arsenal, the fact that we just had to spend so much time containing them, leaving little opportunity to mount any attacks ourselves.

Several people on here commented on the low profile of Noble and Collison in the second half, but on reflection I think they should take credit for working so hard when we DIDN’T have the ball, to ensure that Arsenal’s midfield didn’t have a chance to carve out that many chances.

(n.b. Iain, sorry for messing about with my log-in… it is now sorted and will remain as this, so no need to pre-moderate this name)

Read that earlier. Zola certainly has brought some fresh air into the Westham ranks. looking forward to how the rest of the season unravels.

We’ve got some very nice future plays, Tomkins, Stanislas, Savio, Sears and by the looks of it Robert Hall, to name a few. The other youngsters carry alot of potential too. Cannot wait to see how they perform under the guidance of Zola and his team. Glad to see he gave credit to the other main coaches as well.

Just read that, and was about to link it here. Paul Doyle, the writer, had a blog up recently about Carlton Cole being the next England centre forward, so it looks as if at least the Guardian’s on our side (they also send the great David Lacey to cover most home games).

Really great article – only thing missing is the improvement in their fitness levels. In the piece Zola said that 80% of their training is with the ball but it seems we’re shutting teams out and concentrating for 90+ mins now. When we were losing games we were conceding late on.

This article also appeared in this mornings “Irish Times”. West Ham very rarely get mentioned in Ireland (all Man U, L’pool+ Celtic), Zola and Clarke are an excellent management team, I hope all this positive attitude continues to be rewarded.
Does anyone else worry that Chelsea might come in for the pair when they loose patience with big Phil as they demand results all the time.?

Think Zola’s overall attitude has made a difference but you cannot take away Steve Clarke,proffesionalism and ability between the two of them to make the players understand that you can still win games by playing great football in the traditional West Ham way but on occasions you also have to dig in and concentrate for the whole 90 minutes

The first diffence is that we get time on Sky Sports News now.
Was a good interview with Upson on there today. Upson was saying the players are relaxed and play with no pressure.
Also there was talk that Clarke takes the defenders 4 days a week and takes the forwards once a week. the same for Zola.

Presumably Steve Clarke left Chelski for more than just the lure of a new challenge and working alongside the immensely popular but untried and untested GianFranco? Anyone got any ideas?
If it is more than those two aspects, it just may mean that they have no desire to rush over to the Bridge…

It seems that Clarke left because The Gene Hackman wasn’t using him as much as he wanted, was leaving him out of much of the team preparation, and took over aspects of training that Clarke had run himself before- such as set plays.

I don’t know that there is any particular animosity between Clarke and Roman.

With regard to Steve Clarke and Chelsea, I think the way they treated him after he said he wanted to come to us will make it hard for them to get him back. After over 20 years at the club, he gets sidelined by the new manager, asks for a move, gets told he can’t go, can’t come to work (gardening leave) and they ask for twice the value of his contract in compensation. There was an interview with him after the Chelsea game, I think it was by a Chelsea web blog, the first question was; “What do you miss about Chelsea?” the answer was; “Not a lot”

Personally, I can’t see why anyone would want that job other than if they’re in it for the money, if you win the league you’re expected to do that, same with the champions league. Zola has come out today (Sunday) and said he won’t run out on his contract, let’s hope Mr Duxbury gives him a longer one this summer. Also, I don’t think buying expensive players is Zola’s preferred method, he has said many times that he loves training up young players and trying to help them become better, he won’t get that at Chelsea, they don’t have the patience. All their youngsters go out on loan and usually don’t go back if they’ve got any sense as they won’t get near the first team. I can see Mr Zola and Mr Clarke staying with us for a good few years to come.

Isn’t it about time the managers name got put back into the ‘Claret and Blue Army’ chant?

I think Steve Clarke wanted to leave Chelsea as Scolari took away a lot of his responsibility in favour of his “own” men. Add to that the way they treated him, which was appalling one we went in to get him. I dont think he would go back to Chelsea and having just read this I dont thin Franco is in a rush to go back there either.http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_4905072,00.html
Best management team we have had in decades… they have claret and blue blood now!!

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About Iain Dale

I'm a season ticket holder in the Dr Martens Lower and originally come from Saffron Walden in Essex, although I now live in Tunbridge Wells. By day I am a political writer and commentator for various media organisations including the Daily Telegraph, the BBC and Sky News. I am also publisher of the new monthly magazine called TOTAL POLITICS. I want this blog to be a mixture of gossip, humour, reporting and analysis - with the odd rant thrown in too. My other blog is a political one at http://iaindale.blogspot.com and if West Ham Till I Die attracts half as many readers as that, I'll be very happy.